1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of mobile communications and networking and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for simulating physical screen sharing for multiple running applications on a mobile computing platform.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of mobile communications, hand-held computing appliances are available that provide user-access to the Internet and facilitate network and telephony communications. More recently a Linux-based platform called the Android mobile platform has been developed for mobile computing. On the Android platform as well as on other mobile computing platforms, the dominant running application assumes entire control of the physical display screen on the mobile device. Other applications that may be loaded (executed) and running on the device sit in the background in a passive state until manually selected as the top application.
There are some applications that contain multiple separate windows that receive and display updated information such as home screen widgets on the Android platform and Pop-up intent windows like the voice recognition intent provided by Google™. Home screen widgets on the Android platform and other summary display pages (web pages) are simple snapshots of dynamically updated data. One limitation with widgets is that they are dependant on a home screen. Any one of these widgets expanded takes up the entire physical display. The voice recognition intent application by Google™ assumes control over the entire physical display leaving any other running application in a passive state.
In mobile computing, there is a desire to allow multiple independent applications to run in parallel wherein those running applications may update the physical display simultaneously. The Android framework includes the concept of forming “Intent” which also includes key/value pairs of messages allowing for requests and responses between applications. For example, it is a common practice to send an intent to a native dialer application from another running application to implement calling functionality. Another example may be using native email application to send a new email. A limitation with the current technology dictates that only a single application may control the entire physical display on the mobile appliance. To work with and display information from non-active applications executed and running on the device, a user must select the application and engage in manual task performance to replace the original display with new data from the other application.
Therefore, what is currently needed in the art is a system and methods for simulating physical screen sharing among multiple running applications on a mobile device. Such a system would improve efficiency and reduce overall task performance requirements of the user.